Hand Built Solenoids - Recent Project 2026
Relax: Find appropriate code to learn from.
Critical components for making bespoke solenoids for loud speakers,
Diaphragm and Suspension : 100 % project success !
Coil, : 100 % project success !
Spider, : 100 % project success !
Pole Piece : 60 % - oh no!
Basket : 100 % project success !
All parts need to work perfectly to be able to share the idea sensibly with other enthusiast to gauge if there is a niche market that can be explored.
Reasons the prototype has taken significantly longer to make than anticipated:
Normally solenoids are manufactured via a process of casting. The cast of a solenoid is critical to it's operating characteristics. This is because the cast which is also know as the pole piece has to both spread the magnetic field and dissipate heat from the coil.
Often manufactures will spend huge amounts of money in either hardware or software if they are looking to gain specific operating characteristics from a solenoid. An analogy of this would be adding artificial bacon flavouring into crisps, instead of eating crisps and sausages together.
This is one of the reason that 70's guitar amplifier sound brilliant and Testla car are so fast, not that I've been lucky enough to drive one.
Although not initially the main goal of my work one of the unexpected outcomes due to the difficulties in getting parts machined and small scale one of castings was a prototype that allows me to adjust the following areas of a solenoid which are normally static due to the manufacturing techniques and costs for mass production.
The following areas that my prototype can be adjusted reagarding operating characteristics are.
Types of magnets used such as ferrite magnet or neodymium speakers air gap tolerance between the pole piece and coil materials used for pole pieces types of materials used for the spider providing options for dampening and resonance, easy access for assessing the prototype during testing,